When England
came to Australia for second Ashes series of 203-14, no one ever thought of the
result we are seeing now. 5-0 would be a dream and fairly distant away from the
reach of Australia. England had been playing good. They had crushed India in
India and then won the ashes 4-0. Australia had the advantage of playing at
home, but no one ever thought of a whitewash by Australia. When Australia won
the 3rd test match, this score line was looking achievable. But everyone
was hoping for a comeback from England, who always rated test match cricket superior
than any other format.
If you
look any series between any two teams, there are lots of turning points of a match.
This is different in every match. But in this series England repeated the same
mistake in every match. Every time England got four to five wickets of
Australia quickly but they were not able to capitalize on it and every time Australia
bounces back from this situation and this was a turning point of this series.
England’s
bowling was sparkling before this series. It was looked like an unplayable
bowling attack. Every bowler looks like a wicket taking bowler.
Mitchell
Johnson was making a comeback from this series and his comeback would be
remembered for a long time in history. It was a series made for Johnson. He
made his impact in every inning. He took 37 wickets in 5 test matches which is
a record. Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon always took a wicket
whenever Australia requires in this series. Especially Nathan Lyon bowled skillfully
in this series. Pitches in Australia don’t offer too much spin, taking this
point Lyon bowled a tight line around off and middle. His bowling action is
quite simple as his deliveries. He forced England batsmen to make a mistake.
Patience
is always a key feature in a test match. Whether you are bowling, batting or
fielding. You need to keep patience and be disciplined in you approach. In
start of this series England’s batsmen looked little bombastic. They were not
expecting this vicious and disciplined bowling by Australia. Australian bowlers
tested their patience and England’s batsmen failed in it.
England
batsmen did not able to stay on the wicket and this was proved by the fact that
there was only one century and 7 half century from England’s batsmen in 5 test
matches which was quite less as compared to 10 century and 15 half century by
Australia batsmen. Someone from Australia score a century in every test match,
most of the time it came when Australia was in trouble.
England’s
batting and bowling performance also made a huge impact on their fielding. They
were not sharp in the field. Drop some easy catches and not able to convert
half chances into wickets.
Captaincy
of Clarke was much better than Cook. Clarke used Johnson in short spells and he
always give ball early to Nathan Lyon so that he could attack new batsmen. Cook
was not able to use his bowlers properly when England need to press the
attacking button his main bowler was not there to bowl. His own performance
also made an impact on his captaincy.
This
series was a one sided series. This was the first time ashes series was
organized two times in a year. So that cricket fan can watch the best cricket
between these two teams. England when played in England played good cricket and
Australia did the same in Australia. Both the series was a one sided series and
fan’s were not able to watch the zeal which was an important aspect of this
series.
By - Chirag Joshi